Monday, April 11, 2005
Powertoys for Windows XP - Tweak UI - Change Location of My Music
Organizing and managing stored music on my computer has always been an important issue. I regularly reinstall Windows XP because I like to keep my computer running clean and I also upgrade hardware a lot. Reinstalling my operating system and formatting my hard drive help to keep things functioning correctly. At one point I purchased an external hard drive to back up my important files and store my music on. Relocating my my music to this seperate drive would save me time whenever I had to reinstall my operating system. I wouldn't have to burn it to a DVD or worry about reorganizing it.
At first it seemed like keeping my music stored on the external was a great idea. Once I got the drive I adjusted my Windows Media Player settings to identify my external music folder as my "main" music location. Unfortunately, every time I used Windows Media Player or any other software application to buy and download music it would default to my C drive and save the music under My Documents > My Music. I finally called Microsoft and asked how to fix this problem and they turned me onto Powertoys for Windows XP.
Powertoys is a set of official programs that are offered as extras built by developers in order to help advanced users customize and manage thier computer resources. The best part is that Powertoys are all free! In under five minutes I was able to download the Tweak UI utility from Power Tools and configure my operating system to identify my external D hard drive as the primary location for "My Music." Ever since using this simple program I have been able to harness the potential of my music software and other "defaulted" windows applications, using my external HD as if it were the original C drive.
This program has really helped streamline and simplify my computing and I wanted to share this knowledge with anyone looking to customize and organize their music files. You can download Tweak UI from the list of Windows Powertoys here: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx
Steps for using Tweak UI: Start > All Programs > Powertoys for Windows XP > Tweak UI expand "My Computer" then click "Special Folders" use the drop down box to hilight "My Music" then click Change Location. Specify the new location for storing music then hit OK.
Other Windows XP Powertoys include:
- ClearType Tuner - This PowerToy lets you use ClearType technology to make it easier to read text on your screen, and installs in the Control Panel for easy access.
- HTML Slide Show Wizard - This wizard helps you create an HTML slide show of your digital pictures, ready to place on your Web site.
- Open Command Window Here - This PowerToy adds an "Open Command Window Here" context menu option on file system folders, giving you a quick way to open a command window (cmd.exe) pointing at the selected folder.
- Alt-Tab Replacement - With this PowerToy, in addition to seeing the icon of the application window you are switching to, you will also see a preview of the page. This helps particularly when multiple sessions of an application are open.
- Tweak UI - This PowerToy gives you access to system settings that are not exposed in the Windows XP default user interface, including mouse settings, Explorer ettings, taskbar settings, and more. Note: Version 2.10 requires Windows XP Service Pack 1 or Windows Server 2003.
- Power Calculator - With this PowerToy you can graph and evaluate functions as well as perform many different types of conversions.
- Image Resizer - This PowerToy enables you to resize one or many image files with a right-click.
- CD Slide Show Generator - With this PowerToy you can view images burned to a CD as a slide show. The Generator works downlevel on Windows 9x machines as well.
Virtual Desktop Manager - Manage up to four desktops from the Windows taskbar with this PowerToy. - Taskbar Magnifier - Use this PowerToy to magnify part of the screen from the taskbar.
- Webcam Timershot - This PowerToy lets you take pictures at specified time intervals from a Webcam connected to your computer and save them to a location that you designate.
please note - all Powertoys names and descriptions were taken from the official Powertoys website.
posted by Court @ 5:09 PM
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